"Farewell My Concubine," after which the film is titled, is a classic opera in the 200 year-old Beijing Opera repertoire. It is about the Chu-Han Contention, the series of battles around 200 B.C. that established the Chinese Han dynasty. The opera follows the legend about how King Xiang Yu is defeated. His concubine Yu Ji commits suicide out of love and loyalty to her king. In it's classical production, the concubine is played by a male. It is a much honored role, and judged by how convincing the actor is as a woman. The training is the arduous and complex.

The movie starts in the 1920s in Beijing. A cis-male (Douzi) is trained for the concubine role from a young age. He becomes a woman. He falls in love with the actor (Shitou) who plays the king. The love succumbs to the turbulence of the times in China - the Japanese occupation during WWII, the Chinese civil war between the Nationalists and Communists, and the Cultural Revolution - and last but not least, Shitou's marriage to Juxian. a beautiful and famous prostitute.

This is an epic film nearly three hours long. It covers a complex period in China's 20th century history. I had put off watching it from some time because of it's length. I also suggest reading some of the critic's reviews found at IMDb; details of the plot were often obscure to me, but I suspect would have been well recognized by a native Chinese. Don't worry about spoilers. It uses, after all, the tragedy of the clossic opera as the backdrop.

Stories don't come much better than this - an emotional roller coaster ride.
Done to perfection.

By the way, the adult Douzi is played by a woman playing a man, playing a woman. Sound familier?
Cannes 1993 Palme de D'Or.